PETER RAVEN UNDER FIRE

Freely imitating (as is his wont) classic tales—particularly, in this case, the nautical fiction of C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian—Malloy fashions a quick-paced historical doorstopper that sends a British spy, a brilliant young midshipman and a beautiful American heiress crisscrossing the Atlantic. To refill his treasury and take firmer hold of his American possessions, Napoleon has struck a deal with Count Vallon, a fabulously wealthy and utterly psychotic pirate king. It’s up to secret agent Paul Beaumont and his quick-study new protégé Peter not only to foil the plot, but also to spring Lucy Cosgrove, a socialite more comfortable with a long rifle in her hands than a fan, from the clutches of Vallon, who has whisked her away to his hidden Caribbean fortress. Backed by a supporting cast of familiar types, many many of whom die in often-brutal ways, the three meet, part and meet again on the way to a properly melodramatic climax. Replete with colorful characters, the good ones clearly separated from the evil, plus full measures of danger, intrigue and romance, this seagoing epic is tailor-made for beach reading. Billed as first of a series. (Fiction. 11-13)